Cryptozoology

“Monster Shark” Off Sydney

Breaking News – Some reports say a 15 ft long shark is patrolling off Sydney. I’ve not heard any shouts of “Megalodon” or “Meg” (which I hear will be a movie in 2008) but something big is being seen…. Here’s a news story from “tomorrow” – yes, it is already February 8th there: It was like a scene out of Jaws, as swimmers rushed from the ocean after sightings of a “monster” shark. The drama happened yesterday morning [Wednesday, February 7, 2007] at Sydney’s La Perouse beach, just minutes before another alert just a few kilometres away at Bondi. The [...]

Extinct SE Asia Vulture Found

The only known colony in Southeast Asia of slender-billed vultures (Gyps tenuirostrishas) – shown above – have been discovered in Cambodia, along with other endangered bird species. The vulture colony was discovered in January 2007, in the rainforests east of the Mekong River in Cambodia’s Stung Treng Province, according to Michael Casey’s Associated Press Bangkok-based dispatch for February 7, 2007. The slender-billed vultures were believed extinct throughout Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Cambodia, and only having been found in northern India recently. Some call it the world’s rarest vulture. We discovered the nests on top of a hill where two [...]

Once In A Blue Moa

Did a young girl from a pioneering Fiordland family have the last human encounter with a moa? It has gone down in history as one of the most puzzling rare-bird sightings and it happened in the remote south-west corner of New Zealand. What was the big blue bird that pioneer Alice McKenzie saw at Martins Bay, 30km north of Milford Sound, in 1880? Experts are still debating nearly 130 years later. Did a species of moa, such as the little bush moa, survive human predation and live on in the Fiordland wilderness 400 years after they were thought to be [...]

FeeJee Mermaids & Other Gaffs

The easiest pseudocryptozoological exhibition items to have, of course, are often the gaffs and hoaxes. Among those in most cabinets of curiosities are the Feejee mermaids and the furred trouts, both taxidermy fakes. I have my share. I use them to let people know these objects are often shown as “almost real” specimens. Most honest sideshow owners displaying them often merely only ask “What is It?” or “Is it Real?” But slowly the drift has been, perhaps due to eBay, for people to present these items as cryptozoological, from “unknown animals.” For cryptozoologists, we need to be aware of this [...]